The present invention relates to an oil-cream bath that, added to a conventional amount of the bath water, not only has a cosmetic action in that it makes the skin soft, silky, and smooth, the action remains long after the application, but also can bring about a regenerating and normalizing effect on the skin.
Tub and shower baths to which appropriate bath preparations (bath-additive preparations) are added are enjoying increasing popularity among consumers because they not only serve to cleanse the body but also promote a feeling of cleanliness, relaxation, and refreshment during the bath that is of considerable significance for the physiological and psychological effect of the bath on the total organism.
Possible externally applied preparations that have an effect on the skin include in particular bath preparations based on lipids. Baths of this type can apply lipids to the skin. Since the beneficial effect of lipids in protecting the skin and in normalizing the condition of the skin, especially dry skin, has, on the other hand, been known for a long time, oil baths have often been applied for the purpose of applying lipids to low-fat skin, with the cleansing action often occupying a backround position.
It is known that even a simple water bath, a bath, that is, without the addition of a preparation developed for this purpose, will lead to structural and functional alterations in the film on the surface of the skin. This interaction product consists chemically of the cutaneous-layer materials, of the keratinization of the epithelial cells, of the polar water-soluble skin-content materials, of the non-polar lipid-soluble sebum with its complicated composition, and of water, which occurs both free and bound. It represents a complex and closed physiological system.
Even in a simple (pure) water bath without any additive, the first that occurs is a swelling of the cutaneous layer that depends of the length of the bath and its temperature. Water-soluble materials in the surface of the skin (water-soluble dirt for example), but also materials that are responsible for the water-binding capacity of the cutaneous layer, are simultaneously removed by being dissolved. There occurs simultaneously as the result of emulfsifiers inherent in the body also a certain amount of fat dissolution. This later causes, subsequent to the initial swelling, a definite drying of the skin that is augmented even more by wash-active additives, especially in the direction of defatting. The natural equilibrium of the content materials is accordingly disrupted and the remaining material alters its properties. Finally, the hydration potential of the skin-surface film is perceptibly decreased.
If the skin is intact, this damage is unimportant. The protective mechanisms of the skin have no problem in compensating for such slight impairments in the upper skin layers. Even when non-pathological deviations, like environmentally determined wear and tear or irritations, sunburn, elderly skin etc. for example are present however, the protective mechanism of the skin-surface film is disrupted and thus often incapable of carrying out its assignment by itself. It must then be regenerated by external means.
In looking through the published recipes for known cosmetic bath preparations, it is evident that they mostly consist of simple mixtures of lipids--such as fats, that is, waxy esters, higher alcohols, hydrocarbons, and similar materials, each used by itself alone or in combinatins. The properties of these fatty or oily phases are varied in accordance with the purpose for which they are intended by the addition of surface-active substances selected from the aspect of obtaining the least possible defatting effect with a relatively satisfactory cleansing action. Thus, compounds (bath-additive preparations) can be formulated in accordance with the type and amount of constituents selected that will produce either films of oil that spread over the surface of the bath water, emulsions of oil in water, or even total solubilizates, with both foaming and non-foaming formulations being possible. Although outstanding effects on the skin that can still be objectively evaluated by biophysical measurement of the skin, parameters can in many cases be obtained even with the known bath-additive preparations, considering their relatively simple composition, the functionality of such formulations in oil or oil-cream bath preparations has been limited up to now only to adding, restoring, or supplying excess fat to the uppermost skin layers.
Attempts to develop functional oil-cream baths with a performance that would extend beyond a skin-care and fat-restoring effect, have always been unsatisfactory up to now and have not led to the desired results when used. In this case it must not be overlooked and in aggravating to observe that the conventional practical concentration of a bath-additive preparation in a bath results in a dilution of bath additive to water of 1:5000. For 100 liters (1) of bath water, for instance, and at a hardness range of 3 (2.5-3.8 mmol/1GH*), a chemical reactivity of 15-21 g of overall hardness elements calculated in the form of CaO must be counted on. The generally mild alkaline reaction of water is known. FNT *GH=gesteintharte (=overall hardness of water)